A mud map is the map a farmer draws
on the ground for a passing traveller. It is rough
and ready, not very detailed, and lacks nuance. The
scale may be inaccurate. But the map has on it the
details needed for the journey.
Imagine 6 boys of 16 and 17 out
bushwalking in the Flinders Ranges. The old map they
have with them is not adequate for the task. They are
bushed. This is a picture of men today. The old maps
for living are no longer up to the task.
So the boys squat and draw on the
ground, with bold strokes -"This is the ridge we
are on." and with tentative strokes - "I
reckon the next ridge will curve around there."
They refer to the map they brought,-"That
would be this creek here which we crossed this
morning." "Yes, but those spurs aren't
there like that- we didn't cross them." In the
light of feminism and many other changes in society,
the landscape of life changes, too.
The course of life needs to be
remapped. It can only be done, in the end, by walking
over the territory. The aerial photos used to draw
the old survey maps (some one else's journey) don't
work. They are not enough to build a map for living.
And it's no good having a dogmatic
belief. Theology that 'believes the right thing' and
does not then go on and experience the territory, is
"practical atheism." It doesn't really let
God make a difference to life.
Real masculine theology is full of
doubt and trial and error. It acknowledges the
frequent feeling of the absence of God. It takes good
account of where it is- "You can't draw the map
like that! You're forgetting there must be a creek on
this side of the ridge." It remembers where it
has been, "We know there must be an old fence
line through there. We crossed it yesterday."
When I was a boy life seemed obvious.
Finish school, go back on the farm or get a job, be
married- we didn't think much further than that. But
life is always interrupted.
In my father's generation there was a
war, and the young men were dragged off.... Six years
of my father's life... No knowing if there would be a
homecoming.... A legacy of memory...
In my generation the interruption is
about whether I have a job and, how I can be a man.
What does life mean? In our forties when we expected
to be grooming a son for the farm, or to have broken
the back of a suburban mortgage, we are back at 16 or
17 years old in the wild ranges of life. We are often
unsure of who we are. Perhaps the farm, or the house
and the job, are gone and we are being told we are
too old for a job anymore!
The old maps have failed us. Water is
very short on our journey. We must do some hard
thinking to discern the outlines of our own new mud
map. We must map a new path.
Some Australianisms
Bushwalking In Australia this means to carry
your supplies in a pack. It is a rougher and more
dangerous experience than implied by the word "camping"
and often not follow marked paths.
Flinders Ranges stretch several hundred miles
north from Crystal Brook in South Australia. Very
rough, and sometimes very dry!
Survey maps Australian government maps
